So, here is our Hyundai Kona.
Some basic Facts:
- 64kWh Battery
- WLTP Range 279 Miles
- 150 Kw Engine (eqivalent to 204 bhp)
- 0-60 in under 7 seconds.
The facts above are from the Hyndai website and I have to admit, I am mightly impressed with this car. We only lease it at present, but due to the practicalities, efficency and enjoyment, we are looking to see if we can buy it after the lease ends.
Everyone asks, how long does it take to charge it? What happens if you run out out of battery? How long does the battery last for. These are all genuine questions and I’ll try and answer them in a different post later on as these questions are generic.
BUT, we have had this vehicle now for just under a year, we have done circa 7000 miles so far and our cost for charging works out to be circa 2p a mile now with our new energy tariff we are on (£140). We simply plug it in at home with our Zappi home EV charger. Our charger will activate at 21:30 though to 02:30 and during that period it can send 35kw of energy to the car. This will add 140 (give or take) miles to the car. The reason it will do this, is that this is our cheaper ‘Time of Day’ tariff from Octopus Energy dedicated to electric vehicle owners. We could choose to charge longer, but the cost would be higher.
If it happens to be summer time and we have a nice sunny day, then the home charger we have will take energy from our solar panels and divert that to the car also. In this case its free of course. This summer, i’d say that we have been able to divert a good few hundred miles of free energy to the car for our own useage.
Our longest journey in this car was from Torbay to London. (circa 250 miles) and we did this journey on a NON STOP trip and made it to our destination on one charge. (See other post for this particular adventure)
If there is one negative about this car is perhaps the size of the boot. The Kona was never designed as an EV from the ground up and during its design, boot space has been sacrificed to give the car a better / larger range of driving.
Stats from my driving over the last year. In winter time, the range will reduce by approx 10%. This is due to the fact you are using the heating and batteries will always perform at a reduced function in colder weather so assume about 240/250 on the safe side. In summer time, our range has shown as much as 330 miles of range giving approx 5 miles per kWh of driving.